This weekend I took part in an online writing workshop organised by the team at Retreat West – although it was part of a whole weekend I could only commit to one day but what an amazing day it was! There were about 20 others on the workshop, many who already knew each other but everyone was very friendly and welcoming.
The day flew over with a variety of guest speakers who gave us activities to get us writing but also excellent advice to help hone our writing skills. Poppy O’Neill from the writing community Writers HQ started the day off with a session on playfulness in writing which reminded me that sometimes I forget about having fun because I’m focusing too much on writing my best story. Having fun helped me come up with a new story starter which I hope to develop later.
Next came a fantastic session from author Meg Pokrass and her collaborator in writing Rosie Garland, both of whom are very successful independently but have been collaborating with their writing for a while and gave us all an insight into their process. Collaboration in this way is not something I have been involved with but it was definitely something I would consider in the future.
After a short break we were treated to an intense but immensely useful session on editing from the hugely talented Meagan Lucas who made me realise just how brutally honest I have to be with myself to make my work better. Cut, cut and cut again and then maybe add some in if it needs it. Be conservative with the ‘flabby bits’ as she called them but most usefully she demonstrated what she meant by talking through some examples of work that she admired.
Last but not least was a flash writing session with prompts from Laura Besley where we were stretched to use our tired brains to develop flash from just a few random words. Laura offered great ideas and support to get us writing and developing the ideas that sprang from the session. We were asked to really think about key aspects of what makes a good prompt, a good story, how do we know when something is good. Although we ran out of time to share our beginnings, I certainly came away with lots of ideas to start new stories.
Overall, I can thoroughly recommend Retreat West as an organisation to look at for writing workshops. World class authors were on hand to support participants in a very relaxed but professional environment. A fantastic day.